Day 4 - Tortuguero - Fortuna

It was with heavy hearts that we loaded up the boat this morning to leave Tortuguero. We had rose early again to test water samples from the canal, had a great breakfast and a night of well deserved rest by the time we had to say goodbye to this remarkable place.

One more long boat ride where we saw many more birds (including a King Vulture and a beautiful Osprey) and we were back at the boat dock filing in the bus. This was a day of travel and we take our travel seriously. We really loved our boat driver, who is deaf and perhaps as a result spots everything. Katie has been practicing her sign language with him and serving as our translator (how cool!).

We were on the road for a short while before we stopped to view a banana packing facility. This being the week before Easter the plant was closed so we couldn't see it in action. However, the advantage to seeing an unmanned facility is that we were able to get up close with the plants and view the conveyor belts that carry bananas in from the fields up close. A nice stop where we also say a Scarlet-Rumped Tanager.

Back on the bus for a bumpy, bumpy ride down the gravel roads for quite a while before we made it on to pavement again (what a relief). Then we were on the road for another age before we stopped for a 2pm lunch in Sarapiqui. The food was great - I'll try to upload a picture of our lunch.

We still had miles (or rather kilometers) to go so we were in the bus again until about 4:45pm when we arrived at Baldi Hot Springs outside of La Fortuna. This is a developed hot springs that is filled with natural hot spring water that is heated deep in the Earth in this highly volcanic region that boasts the second most active volcano in the world, Arenal.

The hot springs are of varying temperatures of fabulous and after our quick hot springs tutorial courtesy of David we were off to soak. All was well until Joey came jogging up looking for me to tell me that David had split his chin open on the water slide. I don't think I have recovered from the shock yet. After much hemming, hawing and inspecting his chin Mr. Ulrich (the nurse) and Maggie (another adult leader and former pediatrician) used butterfly closures to seal up the clean split. He really is fine but will have to keep his chin dry until it heals. I'll try and get a picture of the carnage tomorrow.

After some time recovering from the ordeal in the hot springs we were off to our hotel for the night where Mackenzie promptly fell and skinned her knee pretty well. She is a tough girl and says it doesn't hurt at all. At any rate, I am starting to feel like we are a little accident prone. Add to that Meg who is constantly tripping or like today watching as something falls onto her head from the overhead compartment and we are looking a little rough. Nothing a little rest won't cure.

On that note I am exhausted and must go get some sleep. We are all thinking of you and the weather at home; I wish we could have brought you with us. I should be able to update daily now, tomorrow may be another late entry. All the best and keep the comments coming...

Judy